African American Influences On American Popular Music Cultural Studies Essay

African American Influences On American Popular Music Cultural Studies Essay These days, it’s not uncommon to hear the fusion of different styles of music. In fact, American music is more integrated than before and showcases different music from around the world. Melding different styles of music was popularly done as early as the twentieth century with the growth of American popular music. One style of music that had major influence on popular music was African American music. At the time, American popular music was burgeoning with different styles of music; each style was distinct in its own right with different rhythms, melodies, textures, and performance styles. From 1930 to 1970, popular music can be traced to black music of the nineteenth and twentieth century as evidenced by the metric organization, scales, instruments, and performing styles that originated from African music. By recapitulating the influences of African American music on popular music, the impact that black music has had on various musical genres is shown. African American musi c was brought by slaves to the Americas and later adapted to European styles. Later, African American music would incorporate highly syncopated music and the features of ragtime. These features set the stage for more music to be created, and in time many of the characteristics of black music were embedded into other musical genres. In particular, the 1930’s-1940’s Big Band era; 1930’s country music; 1950’s-1960’s rock, used observable components of African American music. The music was not only influenced by the musical structure of black music, but by the performing styles of musicians. To adopt many of the African-American features, many musicians of the time had to re-invent or improvise the old with something new. These components lead up to the merging of different styles with African-American music. For many people, jazz is pleasant and enjoyable. One of the reasons it is because there are so many different sounds that come together to form t his music. In the Big Band era of the 1930’s, jazz, or swing, had become popular and incorporated the African elements of syncopation and riffs. Riffs, rhythms, and syncopations are just a few characteristics of African American influence on virtually all music, and jazz music in particular took this influence to a different level. (Campbell 70). What changed was that previously, in the early nineteenth century, ragtime was essentially syncopated music but was more in accordance with marching and piano music. Jazz is highly improvisational, which give way to more sounds and changes in rhythm, melody, and texture. The structure and metric organization of the jazz band was also influenced by African American music. In no other musical genre can one find the â€Å"call and response â€Å"style of music that was originated from African American music, and many genres have since borrowed from this method. Many jazz bands used â€Å"call and response† between the players a nd their instruments. This made the music much livelier, adding to the energy created by the fast- paced flow of jazz that appeared in the twentieth century. Four-beat counts were used in jazz music characteristic of black music in the earlier part of the twentieth century. This was the main foundation for jazz which also used percussions found in ragtime and African drum dance.

Reading Response Speech of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont Essay

Reading Response Speech of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont - Essay Example and devoted themselves mainly to convincing the leaders and their subjects of the land where this cruel anger had affected to open the churches that were located on the east side. They solemnly ordered them at the Auvergne council on their achievement to such activities, as a groundwork for the reduction of all their evils (Krey, 2012). The Bishop of Puy known as Adhemar, who was the leader of this mission was constituted, and also told to embark on their stead. This was done so that those individuals who perhaps might be willing to undertake this voyage, must act in accordance with his rules, as if they were their own, and succumb completely to his bindings or loosing’s, to the extent that he will continue to be holding such a position. Additionally, he asserted that if there are any of the crusaders who feel God has motivated them to this undertaking, they should know that Adhemar will set forth with the assistance of God in the time of the supposition of the blessed Mary, and that this crusaders or followers of God should accord themselves to his teachings and follow his rules (Halsall, 1997). There can be no uncertainty on whether the response to Urban’s evangelization significantly surpassed his expectations. The Chronicles version might to some degree been swayed by the character of this response so that they twist what Urban said to prompt it. However, the historians are not in agreement with such a principle in defining the original themes of urban as well-maintained by the chronicles. The importance of this speech is that it will help the believers of Christ to follow the teachings of their church leaders as they will be aware that he or she is directed by God to lead them. This will assist the Holy City of Jerusalem to be delivered from the pagan

Red Bull Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Red Bull - Essay Example Red Bull founded after an Asian locally-brewed tonic in Thailand now markets its eponymous functional energy drink in more than 100 countries. (Wikipedia) Red Bull is a non-alcoholic drink contains the amino acid taurine, B-complex vitamins, caffeine and carbohydrates. Red Bull claims that the body needs more taurine, an amino acid than is produced normally during the physical exertion of the human body. The drink has grown quickly worldwide capturing about 80 percent of the world's energy drink market. Although the company is of Austrian origin, the recipe for the drink Red Bull is said to come from Thailand. (Red Bull Company Profile- Yahoo Finance) The berry-flavored beverage is spiked with additives like taurine and glucuronolactone. And at $2 for an 8.3-ounce can, Red Bull's retail price is at least double what you'd pay for a 12-ounce can of Coke. But it does pack some energy. Red Bull, with 80 milligrams of caffeine, has more than double the dose found in the larger Coke serving, and it has 110 calories per serving versus Coke's 140.The consumption of Red Bull was 1.9 billion cans of in the year 2004, generating just about $2 billion in revenue. In some countries Red Bull commands an 80% market share. In the U.S., where Red Bull enjoys a 47% share of the energy drink market, sales are growing annually at a 40% clip. In the year 2004 it sold 700 million cans in the U.S.; and in 2005 it hoped to sell 1 billion. (Kerry A. Dolan 2005) Customers: Red Bull is popular with college student and nightclubbers, whom the company aggressively targets. But its most public tactic has been to wrap the drink in the sweaty mantle of extreme sports. To that end, Red Bull sponsors its own stunts and competitions in relatively obscure disciplines like street luge, waterfall kayaking, and freeskiing. (Rob Walker 2002) Marketing: Since introducing Red Bull in 1987, Red Bull has invested heavily in building the brand. In 2004 the company spent $600 million, or 30% of revenue, on marketing. (Coca-Cola spends 9%.) But unlike rivals who pay millions of dollars for superstars like Britney Spears, Red Bull relies on cheaper talent: hip youngsters, students and a legion of fringe athletes. Red Bull sponsors some 500 athletes around the world, the type who will surf in Nova Scotia in January or jump out of a plane to "fly" across the English Channel. Every year the company stages dozens of extreme sporting events, like the climbing of iced-down silos in Iowa or kite sailing in Hawaii, as well as cultural events like break-dancing contests and rock music jam sessions. Then there is Hangar-7, an eye-popping structure of glass and steel that the company Red Bull erected next to the airport in Salzburg, Austria. The building serves as a chic eatery for club crawlers and provides shelter for the Flying Bulls, a fleet of 1 5 show planes that appear at air shows around the world. Red Bull has purchased a Formula One racing team, an extravagance that will absorb $100 million a year to keep on the track while generating only $70 million in revenue. All these activities are geared to achieve the objective of expanding Red Bull's presence amid a deluge of new energy drinks being introduced by upstarts and beverage behemoths like Pepsi and Coke. (Kerry A. Dolan